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Business

AI labs are offering companies big money to hand over their employees' private Slack DMs and emails - Business Insider

Your browser does not support the video element. As they race to automate white-collar work, AI labs have found the perfect source of training data: your Slack DMs. Business owners are getting six-figure "exploding offers" that expire in 48 hours to sell their data. Instagram is flooded with ads declaring that "AI needs your data" and promising millions. The data is priced by the terabyte, anonymized, and sold to AI giants desperate for an edge. Tech giants have moved to harvest their employees' data for AI training. And, once focused on dead startups, brokers now pay for live data from active companies. "Right now, the demand is just astronomical," said Dan Novaes, the CEO of Mode. Inc, a startup that sells data to AI model developers. Mundane workplace data is more valuable than ever as OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and others build AI agents for businesses. Annual spending on data for AI is projected to explode from less than $1 billion last year to almost $6.5 billion in 2027, Gartner estimates. The boom has a darker side. Employees rarely profit from — or know about — their Slacks, PowerPoints, and Google Docs being sold to the highest bidder.

Business Insider·
Business

Quebec businesses brace for renewed sovereignty debate - The Globe and Mail

Open this photo in gallery:Premier-elect Paul St-Pierre Plamondon speaks during a post-election news conference in Quebec City on Oct. 6. Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian PressQuebec premier-elect Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is vowing to push ahead with his promise to hold a sovereignty referendum by 2030, setting the clock ticking on a potential breakup of Canada that could affect business confidence and investment. The mere spectre of a referendum could weigh on corporations’ decisions to invest in Quebec, whether it be a new factory in the province’s hinterland or a hotel in downtown Montreal. It could also weaken Canada at a time when the country is staring down a barrel of threats from the White House. But another thing could put his minority government on a more immediate collision course with corporate leaders: immigration. Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon has promised to drastically cut immigration, despite warnings from business people that such tightening could make it harder to meet labour needs.

The Globe and Mail·
Business

I built a family business from scratch to $200 million. Now I’ve become its bottleneck - Fortune

In 2003, my father, my sister and I founded Kormotech, a Ukrainian family-run company producing cat and dog food; in 2008, I became its CEO. I made decisions quickly, trusted my intuition and didn’t believe in lengthy approval processes. Over 23 years, the company has grown into a business with revenue of $210 million, and we’ve become one of the world’s top 50 pet food manufacturers. When, in 2021, we set ourselves the goal of becoming a global company, I realized that my management style, which had helped Kormotech grow, was now holding it back. I had become the bottleneck in my own business.

Fortune·
Business

Sustainability or Competitiveness? European Business Leaders Say It’s the Wrong Choice - Business Fights Poverty

Ester Asin of WWF explores new research showing that European business leaders overwhelmingly see sustainability as a driver of long-term competitiveness. The findings highlight the value of predictable policy, clean energy, investment and regulatory certainty, while suggesting that the real challenge is not choosing between sustainability and competitiveness, but delivering the green transition effectively. Across Europe, sustainability is facing growing political pushback. Concerns about competitiveness, costs and regulatory burdens have prompted the EU to revisit elements of its Green Deal, including legislation intended to strengthen corporate sustainability reporting and accountability.

Business Fights Poverty·
Business

How the EU Circular Economy Act should turn circularity into a positive business case - The Parliament Magazine

We are now just a couple of months away from a key moment in the EU’s circularity journey. By the end of the year, the European Commission is expected to publish its EU Circular Economy Act, an initiative that aims to help Europe achieve its ambition of becoming a world leader in the circular economy by 2030. This is an important next step in a broader journey. Over recent years, the EU has put in place a robust regulatory framework for circularity, including through the Single-Use Plastics Directive (SUPD) and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).

The Parliament Magazine·
Business

Japan orders Prudential’s life units to stop soliciting new business until January 31 - Insurance Business

Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) has ordered two life insurers owned by Prudential Financial to stop soliciting new business until January 31, 2027, but has left Gibraltar Life’s independent agency channel free to keep selling. The orders are the latest step in a fraud scandal at the group’s employed sales forces that has been building since the start of the year. The FSA issued business suspension and business improvement orders to The Prudential Life Insurance Company (Prudential of Japan) on October 9. Prudential of Japan cannot solicit new business from October 13 until January 31. Gibraltar Life Insurance Company received a partial business suspension order and an improvement order running to the same date. The partial suspension covers Gibraltar’s Life Consultant channel, its employed sales force, but not its independent agency channel. The holding company, Prudential Holdings of Japan, received a business improvement order.

Insurance Business·
Business

Kazakhstan’s Business Tourism Market Expands: Which Region Attracts Most Visitors? - The Astana Times

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s resort areas received 510,800 visitors traveling for business and professional purposes in the first half of 2026, with the Almaty Mountain Cluster accounting for 77.3% of the total, according to an analysis by Ranking.kz. The figures highlight the growing role of business tourism in the country’s tourism industry, as companies increasingly combine professional events with leisure and wellness activities. Business tourism, also known as MICE tourism, encompasses meetings, incentive trips, conferences and exhibitions. In Kazakhstan, the sector is developing along two main directions: hosting international events in major cities and organizing business gatherings directly at resort destinations.

The Astana Times·
Business

New Plume Console Multiplies ISP Business Results by Putting AI Agents to Work on Cost to Serve, Churn Reduction and Revenue Growth - PR Newswire

Plume Console gives every ISP team AI agents that autonomously find and resolve complex subscriber issues, turn months of analysis into a few clicks, while enabling operators to cut cost to serve, reduce churn and uncover new revenue opportunities, /PRNewswire/ -- Plume Design, Inc. ("Plume"), the award-winning AI-native platform used by more than 450 internet service providers (ISPs) across 60+ countries to run the securely connected home, today introduced Plume Console at Network X in Vienna. Built on the Plume platform, Plume Console gives ISP teams a single place to investigate subscriber issues, create and deploy agents, and direct actions across Plume WiFi, Plume Security, Plume Care and their existing business systems. It puts the platform's intelligence and automation directly in the hands of the teams responsible for subscriber experience and business performance. Plume Console directs AI at the world's most comprehensive data fabric, drawn from more than 50 million homes, 600 million securely connected devices, and 3000 profiled applications.

PR Newswire·
Business

11:11 Systems buys IBM’s VMware Cloud Service Provider business - Channel Dive

This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. 11:11 Systems bought select enterprise customers from IBM's VMware Cloud Service Provider business, marking its eighth acquisition related to the virtualization software provider and eleventh overall, the company announced Thursday. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Channel Dive·
Business

Howden names reinsurance chair Richardson group CCO - Insurance Business

The new role leads a strategy built on carrier partnerships, facilities and joined-up placement Howden has appointed Elliot Richardson (pictured) in the newly created role of group chief commercial officer, putting him in charge of a new commercial strategy to make fuller use of the broking, reinsurance, underwriting and employee benefits businesses the group has built.

Insurance Business·
Business

AI worms and 'digital slime mold': Welcome to the next AI nightmare fuel - Business Insider

Anthropic researchers said small AI models might be able to self-replicate on cheap devices such as smart ovens or lawn mowers. Forget AI slop. We might soon have "AI worms" and AI "slime mold. "In this latest instalment of AI nightmare fuel, Anthropic's researchers have discovered that small rogue AI models might — as soon as the end of 2026 — start worming their way into home devices like smart ovens, smart refrigerators, automatic vacuum cleaners, and lawn mowers. These internet-connected devices typically have "minimal security measures in place," allowing small models to feed off of their computing power and self-replicate, Anthropic's AI capabilities research team wrote in a report on Monday. This could take the form of "a slow, distributed 'digital slime mold,' living on relatively insecure compute," the researchers wrote. The team studied the behavior of small Chinese models, such as Z.ai's GLM-5.2 and Alibaba's Qwen, as well as others like Google DeepMind's Gemma4-26B-A4B. They gave a prompt to the Gemma model while running inference on 15 cheap off-brand Android TV boxes, each costing $55, and found it worked. Worms aren't new in the software world.

Business Insider·